WA Liberals vow to end Safe Schools if elected

Opposition Leader Mike Nahan denied Safe Schools would be on the chopping block because of religious opposition within his party.

The Liberal Party of Western Australia has vowed to scrap Safe Schools and redirect its funding towards rural education if elected.

Speaking at the party’s state conference, WA Opposition Leader Mike Nahan committed to defunding the program so as to keep regional schools in the state open, ABC News reported.

“The cuts to these schools and these programs are not large, they’re not a large amount of money, and most of the money wasn’t put into the debt reduction — it hasn’t happened — or deficit reduction, it hasn’t happened,” Nahan said.

“It was used to fund the Safe School program, a Labor program.”

Speaking to the media afterwards, Nahan said the cutback was because there were other anti-bullying programs already in place and not due to personal or party opposition to Safe Schools.

“We noticed a new program — there are very few new programs that the Labor Government has come up with, one of them is Safe Schools — and it’s $1.2 million dollars additional money [that] went into Safe Schools,”

When asked if the pledge was a play to the party’s religious conservative base, Nahan said, “No people have come and lobbied me against that.”

About the AuthorLaurence Barber

Laurence is Star Observer's Arts & Culture Writer and Digital Co-ordinator. His background is in film, television and arts criticism with a focus on LGBTI representation in media. For jokes, commentary and actress GIFs, you can follow him on Twitter @bortlb.